Machine for boring rock



E. TALBOT. MACHINE 011 TUNNELLING 0R BQRING ROCK.

No. 9,774. Patented June 7, 1853.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEIoE.

EBENEZER TALBOT, OF YVINDSOR, CONNECTICUT.

MACHINE FOR BORING ROCK.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,774, dated June 7, 1853.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EBENEZER TALBOT, of lVindsor, Hartford county, Connecticut,

have made a certain machine for boring or the figures.

In my said machine for boring or cutting into and through rock or other solid substances, and mainly intended for making tunnels through mountains, I employ rollet cutters such as were patented by Charles Wilson on the 13th day of March 1847, the sharp edges of which rolling against the face of the stone, 620., out or break off certain portions thereof.

The nature of my invention consists in so employing one or more metal rollets or one or more sets of rollets with the periphery properly adapted to cut away the surface of the stone by rolling against it, that they shall describe in their action the segment of a circle from the center to the circumference of the tunnel or other perforation in combination with a slow motion around the said center of the tunnel or other aperture, whether the two said motions be continuous, intermittent or reciprocating, while at the same time the entire machine or that portion of it which carries the rollet or rollets is capable of being advanced for the feed motion in the direction of the axis of the tunnel or other aperture that is being out.

In the accompanying drawings a repre sents the frame of the machine, the platform of which is mounted on slides b b fitted to and sliding on rails o 0 laid on the bottom of the tunnel as the boring progresses. These rails may be laid in any appropriate manner or instead of the rails the platform may be provided with wheels to run directly on the bottom of the tunnel or otherwise intended to move thereon.

On the frame is mounted a hollow shaft (Z which is adapted to turn in appropriate boxes 6 e in the standard of the frame so that it can turn freely and accurately. To the forward end of this hollow shaft is properly secured a cog wheel f, the cogs of which are engaged by a pinion g, on a shaft h provided at the other end with a cog wheel 2' which engages a worm j 011 a transverse shaft 70, that is to receive motion in any appropriate manner from the driving power for the purpose of giving a slow rotary motion to the wheel f and hollow shaft. The front face of the wheel is provided with flanches or arms Z in which are hung two rock shafts m, m, which carry two sectors n, n, and as both are alike the description of one of them will be sufiicient.

The sector n is provided at or near the end with two rollet cutters 0, 0, mounted on appropriate arbors 7), p, the axis of which are at an angle of 45 degrees (more or less) with the axis of the rock shaft. The arbor of each rollet is fitted to turn freely but accurately in a tube 9, the bore of which is eccentric to its outer periphery. This tube is in turn fitted to a box 1" 011 the sector so that it can be turned and moved endwise therein for the purpose of setting the rollet as may be desired, and there secured in place by a temper screw or other appropriate means. The object of this mode of adjust ment (which will be made the subject of a separate patent) is to set the cutting edges of the two rollets, so that one shall, in the vibrations of the sector, describe a different track from the other, that one may out what the other does notand it will be obvious from the foregoing that this adjustment can be efi'ected by turning and sliding the eccentric tubes, in which the others of the rollets turn.

The rollets are formed and operated, in cutting into the stone or other hard substances in the manner of what is known as \Vilsons machine for dressing stone as before stated.

The inner ends of the two sectors are jointed to two connecting rods 8 s, which extend into the hollow shaft and which are jointed at their other end to a cross head 6 or a sliding rod 10, which is appropriately guided in the hollow shaft as it receives a reciprocating motion by a connecting rod 0, from the arm to, of a rock shaft 50, that in turn receives motion from the piston rod y, of an appropriate steam engine the details of which need not be described as the required reciprocating motion can be derived from any other appropriate mechanical agent.

The arm of the rock shaft which receives motion from the piston rod of the engine, is in turn connected by a rod 2, with a crank a, on the shaft of a fly wheel I), to ease off the shocks which would otherwise be produced by the strokes of the engine.

The, feeding motion for turning the wheel f, which carries the cutting apparatus can be derived in any appropriate manner from the shaft of the fly Wheel or from the rock shaft to, and as the means for giving such motions are numerous and well known to machinists it is deemed unnecessary to give a particular description of any one of them.

From the foregoing it will be seen that as the entire machine is advanced the rollet cutters are brought in contact with the face of the rock or other hard substance to be cut, while the vibratory or reciprocating motion given to the sectors in opposite directions causes the cutting edges of the rollets to describe each a track from the center of the wheel f, to the periphery and back again, each one describing an arc of a circle in the plane of the radii. And as the wheel f, is rotated with a slow motion a series of cuts will be made by the periphery of the cutters which will be nearly in the direction of the radii gradually shifting around the entire circle,

and so on in succession, the entire machine being moved forward by any desired means to keep the cutters against the face of the stone. And although I have described the can be connected with the periphery of a wheel or wheels having a continuous rotary motion imparted by cog wheels or their equivalents by means of a shaft passing the hollow shaft f, or by any other suitable means. And as to the mode of rotating the cutting apparatus about the center of the tunnel or other aperture to make the series of cuts it W11]. be obvious that this can be done by a continuous or intermittent motion in one and the same direction, or reciprocating. And finally-as to the progressive motion of the entire cutting apparatus in the direction of the axis of the tunnel or excavation, to keep the cutters against the face to be cut, it can be continuous or inter mittent, and may be communicated in various ways such for instance as screws 62, d, tapped in standards 6, e, secured to the bottom of the tunnel and acting against the end of the frame, or by means of levers acting against the frame, and abutting against some solid part of the tunnel.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The method substantially as herein described of applying a rollet cutter or cutters for boring or excavating tunnels and other apertures in rocks or other hard substances, by causing the said rollet cutter or cutters, or sets of rollet cutters to cut segments of circles from the center or near the center to theperiphery of the tunnel or other excavation, with the concavity toward the machine, in combination with a motion or motions around the center of said tunnel, to cause the said cutter or cutters to act in succession on the entire surface to be cut away, substantially as described.

EBENEZER TALBOT.

Witnesses G. W. SAYLns,

JosErI-I WVHIPPLE. 

